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               Iranian Parliament to Investigate Death of Blogger

   by Negar Mortazavi, Matthew Hilburn

   The deputy head of the Iranian parliament called Sunday for the
   formation of a special committee to investigate the death of Iranian
   blogger Sattar Beheshti, according to the semi-official Mehr news
   agency.
   Vice Speaker Mohammad Aboutorabi said the investigation should be
   completed as quickly as possibile.
   Ayatollah Amoli Larijani, head of the judicial system in Iran, also
   issued a call for an immediate investigation into Beheshti's death,
   saying all responsible should be brought to justice immediately. The
   call came Sunday in a statement by the High Council for Human Rights.

   Another member of parliament, Ahmad Tavakoli, had warned about the
   silence of the judiciary and the foreign ministry regarding the death
   of Beheshti, according to Mehr. He added that officials need to go
   after corrupt officials instead of going after bloggers and the media.
   Beheshti, 35, was arrested in his home in late October, and that his
   family was asked on Wednesday to pick up his body from a detention
   center in Tehran.
   In his last posting before being arrested, Beheshti wrote that security
   services had threatened him - saying his mother "would soon be wearing
   black" if he continued speaking out.
   On Friday, the U.S. State Department demanded Iranian authorities
   investigate his death while in custody last week.
   France and Britain are also calling on Iran to explain Beheshti's
   death.
   Human rights groups Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders
   have joined in calling on Iran to release details of his death.
   Hadi Ghaemi, a spokesman for the International Campaign for Human
   Rights in Iran said cases like Beheshti's are not uncommon.
   "Our organization has documented at least 17 deaths of political
   prisoners inside Iranian prisons since 2003," he said. "There is no
   doubt Beheshti was taken to custody, died within less than a week, and
   his body is already buried without allowing family to have access to it
   or have an autopsy performed."
   He added that the facts of the case were irrefutable and that if the
   death had been due to natural causes, Iranian authorities could have
   easily proven it by allowing an autopsy.
   Beheshti's case recalled the 2003 case of Zahra Kazemi, a
   Canadian-Iranian photographer, was arrested in Iran in 2003 and later
   died while in custody. No one was held accountable in her death.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/beheshti_parliament_investigation_blo
   gger_death/1543764.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/beheshti_parliament_investigation_blogger_death/1543764.html